D23 news: Pixar is making a dinosaur movie

Aug. 20, 2011 | 2:50 p.m.

A scene from "Luxo Jr.," Pixar's animated short film that gave the studio its logo. (Pixar Animation Studios)

The Walt Disney Co. announced two new original Pixar feature films at D23 on Saturday, an untitled movie about dinosaurs directed by “Finding Nemo” screenwriter Bob Peterson due in 2013 and an untitled movie about the inner workings of the brain directed by “Up” and “Monsters Inc.” director Pete Docter due in 2014.

Disney and Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter introduced the two new projects at the media company’s three-day fan event in Anaheim, in a demonstration that the animation studio best known lately for the sequels “Toy Story 3” and “Cars 2” is still committed to original stories.

Peterson showed a single piece of concept art of a dinosaur walking in tall grass with what appeared to be a small child riding on it. The movie, he said, was about what would happen if “the asteroid missed the Earth and dinosaurs continued to live here.”

Docter said his movie is about “Somewhere everyone has been to, but no one has ever seen…. The world inside our minds.” He showed no concept art–except a photograph of the top of his own distinctive head.

“We can’t wait to come back and tell you more as soon as we get out of psychotherapy,” said the film’s producer Jonas Rivera.

The new films were introduced in a panel that also revealed footage from next year’s “Brave” and 2013’s “Monsters University,” with appearances by the cast members of those films, including Billy Crystal and Kelly MacDonald.

Lasseter also showed footage from “Wreck-It Ralph,” a 2012 Disney Animation movie about a conflicted video game villain voiced by John C. Reilly and “Planes,” a 2013 movie from home entertainment studio Disneytoons about a crop duster voiced by Jon Cryer.

In honor of Pixar’s 25th anniversary, the panel closed with confetti raining down on the audience members in the Anaheim Convention Center’s packed 4,000-seat arena as servers handed out cupcakes to the crowd.